VIDEO: Slashed Indiana Officer Protected Others on Off-Duty Job

Officer Edward Morrison is earning praise for ignoring his own wounds to protect others when he was attacked with a razor while working his off-duty job at a Chicago tow yard, reports CBS Chicago .

At age 22, Morrison is considered brave — and lucky to have survived multiple stab wounds to his face, head, and neck.

"I didn't want to die. I had too much to live for," said Morrison, who received dozens of stitches.

The officer for the Indiana University Police Department in Gary, IN, works off-duty as a security guard at Chicago's South Side tow yard.

He was in a security car when a man on the lot called him over. Morrison rolled down the windows and the man for some reason attacked with a razor, refusing to stop even as Morrison sped away.

The officer headed directly to the yard's office, to warn the five people inside to hunker down for safety.

"With no regard for his own actions or his own injuries, he herded the office staff into a safe place, drew his weapon, and protected that staff until the police could arrive," Tom Scully of FIDEI Security said at a news conference in Tinley Park.

Chicago police say the assailant was Heriance Turman, who turned himself in. He's been charged with attempted murder. Morrison, meanwhile, was honored for his heroism and bravery.

"I am going to use this to be a better officer," he says.